Mitt Romney is in Dire Need of a New Speech Writer

This line really sucks:

"I will fight to make sure our future is not defined by the letters 'ACLU,' but by the letters 'USA.'"

[via NRO]


MORE: Man, it's even worse than I thought ...

The ACLU line is probably an attempt by Team Romney to get the kind of free media Giuliani's been getting of late as a result of his cat fight with MoveOn.org, but the "In God We Trust" bit -- what's up with that shit?

There's a deeper problem here that the Romney camp probably doesn't want to acknowledge. Giuliani's a naturally abrasive personality, so when he's out picking a fight in public it helps him in the "authenticity" department. Sure, he's a jerk, but nobody wants nice guys fighting for them.

Romney, on the other hand, doesn't look like he could fight his way out of drum circle. He picks easy targets and often sounds more like a stern father giving a child a talking-to than he does someone who is not to be messed with. A lot of people dismissed his tough talk again Ahmadinejad's visit to the the UN as pandering (and rightly so), but it really was rather poor pandering. Romney sounded more like the Iran leader deserved a grounding, not an indictment.

EVEN MORE: Quoth Steve Benen: "I’ve sure there have been more shameless campaign pitches by presidential candidates this year, but none come to mind."